Editorial: Four years later

Sunday, March 18, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

Legislation is working its way through the House that calls for pulling American troops out of Iraq by next year, while a similar measure in the Senate was defeated last week by a only a three-vote margin.

Since the Iraq war started four years ago today, almost 3,200 troops have died - 28 of them Nevadans - and more than 20,000 have been wounded in President Bush's incompetently waged war in Iraq. And, as stories in today's Las Vegas Sun show, families of these troops continue to suffer as well.

Here at home, Democrats and Republicans are battling over an emergency spending bill in which Bush is asking for an additional $100 billion in military funding. A House vote on the measure could happen later this month.

Support for Democratic proposals in the House and Senate - both of which include timelines for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq - pretty much is divided along party lines. Republicans have said that approving a timetable for removing U.S. troops would prevent Bush from bringing an effective end to the conflict.

The measure approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday places rigid requirements on Bush's progress in Iraq and calls for troop withdrawals no later than September 2008. Although the Senate measure, which called for troop withdrawals by March 2008, was defeated on Thursday, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said that before the summer is over, "Republicans are going to understand they cannot continue to choose the president over the troops."

We aren't optimistic that Biden's prediction will come to fruition. But it is abundantly clear that with thousands of lives destroyed, four years gone and half a trillion dollars spent, Republicans should stop stubbornly protecting Bush and his faltering war effort.